A mechanical resonator device. The resonator device includes a resonator element made of an elastic material under tensile stress and adapted for sustaining at least one oscillation mode; and a clamping structure supporting the resonator element. The clamping structure has a phononic density of states exhibiting a bandgap or quasi-bandgap such that elastic waves of at least one polarisation and/or frequency are not allowed to propagate through the clamping structure. The resonator element and the clamping structure are configured to match with a soft-clamping condition that elastic waves of polarisation and/or frequency corresponding to the at least one oscillation mode of the resonator penetrate evanescently into the clamping structure in a manner such as to minimize bending throughout the entire resonator device. Thereby, bending related loss may be minimized and the Q-factor of the mechanical resonator may be maximized.
Legal claims defining the scope of protection, as filed with the USPTO.
2. Resonator device according to claim 1, wherein an energy-normalized mode shape curvature integral for said oscillation mode of the resonator device is less than an energy-normalized mode shape curvature integral for a corresponding mode with the same frequency of a reference resonator directly suspended from fixed anchoring means on a substrate.
3. Resonator device according to claim 1, wherein the bandgap or quasi-bandgap is produced in the clamping structure by a periodic pattern with lattice constant a.
4. Resonator device according to claim 1, wherein the resonator element and the clamping structure are made of the same elastic material under tensile stress.
5. Resonator device according to claim 1, wherein the resonator element and the clamping structure are formed in a membrane.
6. Resonator device according to claim 1, wherein the at least one oscillation mode of the resonator element is an out-of-plane oscillation mode.
7. Resonator device according to claim 1, wherein the elastic material under tensile stress is one of silicon nitride, diamond, quartz, aluminium nitride, silicon carbide, gallium arsenide, indium gallium arsenide, aluminium gallium arsenide, aluminium, gold, graphene, polymer materials, or combinations thereof.
8. Resonator device according to claim 1, wherein the elastic material under tensile stress is one of dielectrics, metals, semiconductors, metal dichalcogenides, ceramics or piezoelectric materials, or combinations thereof.
9. Resonator device according to claim 1, wherein an initial stress in the elastic material under tensile stress is between 10 MPa and 50 GPa.
11. Resonator device according to claim 10, wherein the resonator element, the at least one further resonator element, and the clamping structure are made of the same elastic material under tensile stress.
12. Resonator device according to claim 1, wherein a decay length of evanescent elastic waves is in the range of 0.1 to 20 times the wavelength of the elastic waves in the clamp.
14. Method according to claim 13, wherein an energy-normalized mode shape curvature integral for said oscillation mode of the resonator device is less than an energy-normalized mode shape curvature integral for a corresponding mode with the same frequency of a reference resonator directly suspended from fixed anchoring means on a substrate.
18. Sensor according to claim 17, wherein the read-out device uses an optical and/or electronic readout element for sensing displacement of the resonator element.
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August 1, 2017
November 1, 2022
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